Sr. Program Manager, Forestry and Natural Resource Management

Winrock International

Remote, United States

Forestry and Natural Resource Management Unit:

The E2 Group is comprised of three units: Ecosystem Services, Clean Energy, and Forestry and Natural Resource Management. The E2 group collaborates closely with other Winrock Groups, including Agriculture, Resilience and Water; Human Rights, Education & Empowerment, The Wallace Center, Domestic Programs, and Corporate Affairs, to identify and implement cutting-edge solutions to climate change. Winrock is a non-profit organization that works around the world to increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources, and protect the environment. Winrock strengthens the capacity of women, children, youth, civil society organizations, and the private sector to actively participate in sustainable development and to positively impact society.

This role will focus initially on the newly awarded Climate Action (ClimAct) project, focused on supporting Bangladesh’s transition to net-zero and climate-resilient development pathways. This involves three key objectives: catalyzing climate-positive shifts in the policy landscape, transforming economic and financial systems, and enhancing governance and citizen engagement.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Program Manager provides technical assistance and project implementation oversight to programs that support climate change mitigation and adaptation, promote sustainable management of natural resources, protect biodiversity, and support resilience of vulnerable communities. The Senior Program Manager will liaise on a daily basis with relevant project offices and supervise the work of one or more Program Associates. The position involves overseeing, coordinating, and monitoring project activities; preparing, reviewing, and managing project budgets; ensuring compliance with USG procedures; providing quality assurance of technical reports and other deliverables; communicating with project staff; and liaising with donors. The Senior Program Manager is responsible for ensuring programmatic, budgetary, and implementation excellence; facilitating strong and regular communication with the project teams; providing rapid and ongoing support to Chiefs of Party; and representing Winrock at forestry, biodiversity and/or environmental events.

This role will focus initially on the newly awarded EECRA/CLIMACT project, focused on supporting Bangladesh’s transition to net-zero and climate-resilient development pathways. This involves three key objectives: catalyzing climate-positive shifts in the policy landscape, transforming economic and financial systems, and enhancing governance and citizen engagement.

The candidate is also expected to significantly contribute to proposal development and program design efforts, including leading or writing proposals or other roles as needed to expand Winrock’s funding and partnership opportunities.

The position requires international travel (approximately 20%).

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:         

Serve as Senior Program Manager for assigned projects, working closely with project teams to develop project strategies, work plans, budgets, and reports.
Track and monitor programs, as assigned, to ensure they are fulfilling deliverable and performance requirements at a high quality, on time, and within budget.
Contribute to conceptualizing and developing new programming in the areas of forestry, natural resource management, biodiversity protection, and climate change.
Participate in new business development and where appropriate, serving in key roles for new business capture and proposal development working with multi-disciplinary teams from programs, new business, and cost and pricing units.
Manage information dissemination and electronic communications among relevant parties, including project teams, internal groups, and external audiences.
Build and maintain relationships with current and future donors, partners, and external audiences.
Promote programming strategies that go beyond individual beneficiary-level impacts to promote systemic change, ownership, sustainability, and scalability.
Develop and maintain close communications with host country government counterparts, local organizations, project personnel, and sub-awardees to strengthen maintain partnership networks and strengthen implementation, monitoring, and compliance.
Supervise and coach assigned Program Associate(s), as needed, providing direct support and guidance.
Serve as budget manager for projects to ensure effective financial management including tracking of budgets, monthly field spending, obligations, and subawards, and flag issues as needed.
Prepare and oversee the preparation of project deliverables, including writing and doing initial technical reviews.
Provide final review of subawards and procurement documents and provide feedback to project team and Program Associate prior to circulation for approval.
Travel to the project offices to conduct training, oversight, monitoring, and strategic relationship building.
Represent Winrock at external events, nationally and internationally.

QUALIFICATIONS AND BACKGROUND:

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, forestry, biology, international development, or related field. Master’s degree preferred.

Experience: 

Minimum of (8+) years’ experience in international development, especially in home office management, financial oversight, technical project management, and donor compliance; direct experience with project implementation in technical or supervisory role.
USAID project management experience required.
Experience with forestry, natural resources management or biodiversity protection programs required.
Experience with private sector engagement and market development approaches preferred.
Demonstrated success in proposal development for US Government or other donors.
Experience training field staff and coaching and mentoring junior staff.
International project implementation work experience strongly preferred.

Skills:                   

Ability to communicate effectively with donors, local partners and host country governments.
Adept at project planning, budgeting, management, and financial analysis.
Demonstrated skills in project management to achieve targets within scope, budget, and on time.
Excellent written and oral communication skills for project management, donor and partner relations, and new business development.
Ability to meet deadlines and manage multiple tasks, and work under pressure while ensuring quality.
Demonstrated strong analytical capability and problem-solving abilities required.
Ability to collaborate effectively with colleagues and foster a positive working environment.
Ability to always demonstrate the highest level of ethical standards.
Experience incorporating gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) considerations into effective programming.
Fluent English is required, competency in additional foreign languages strongly preferred.
Willingness and ability to travel internationally.